


Blankets, cookies, cuddles (Of family and favourites)

by Stargirltakingflight



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: BAMF Peggy Carter, Don't Ask Don't Tell, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Getting Together, Homophobic Language, Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, Howard Stark's Bad Parenting, James "Rhodey" Rhodes & Tony Stark at MIT, M/M, MIT Era, Peggy Carter is Tony Stark's Godparent, Peggy Carter teaches Tony Self-Defense, Protective Jarvis (Iron Man movies), Secret Relationship, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Tony Stark Needs a Hug, Tony Stark-centric, Tony loves his family, chosen family, not by any of the characters tho, not his parents tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-11
Updated: 2018-11-11
Packaged: 2019-08-22 04:25:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16590815
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stargirltakingflight/pseuds/Stargirltakingflight
Summary: Anthony Edward Stark is born into the world on May 29, 1970, to parents who are entirely unsuited to being parents and don’t have any interest in learning about their son, or even spending time with him. They give him to their servants and go on with their lives, Howard as an engineer and Maria as a socialite.As such, his family is one cobbled together by love and affection, rather than one bound by blood.And this is how Tony grows up, surrounded by people who love him, and who he loves in return.





	Blankets, cookies, cuddles (Of family and favourites)

**Author's Note:**

> There I am again, this time with a sweet little story about found family and our two lovable idiots getting together, and life happening in the mean time.
> 
> If you like it, please leave a comment, it literally makes my day when you do.

Anthony Edward Stark is born into the world on May 29, 1970, to parents who are entirely unsuited to being parents and don’t have any interest in learning about their son, or even spending time with him. They give him to their servants and go on with their lives, Howard as an engineer and Maria as a socialite.

 

As such, his family is one cobbled together by love and affection, rather than one bound by blood, and this is how Tony grows up, surrounded by people who love him, and who he loves in return.

 

His primary caregivers are Edwin Jarvis and Ana Jarvis, butler/driver/security and cook of the Stark family respectively. 

 

Tony, as he soon became known as, grows up in a big mansion somewhere in New York, ignored by his parents while Ana sings him lullabies, feeds him and Edwin makes and, on occasion, buys little toys for him to play with. 

 

But, as he is a Stark heir, it doesn’t take long, in fact only five years for him to become victim of a kidnapping incident. Even though the police is quick enough to rescue the small boy, and quite fortunately so, as Howard Stark refuses to pay the kidnappers, Tony had to live through an extremely horrible experience.

 

Edwin and Ana Jarvis, not knowing what to do, call in somebody to help the frightened child regain his footing, to make him feel powerful and mighty in a way they are not capable of teaching him. And thus, Peggy Carter, secret agent and the fiercest women of her lifetime enters his life.

 

These are the people Tony is surrounded by during his younger years. 

 

Peggy, who comes to the mansion with red lipstick and perfect hair and leaves with a feeling of rage bigger than anything she ever felt, at the world and its wretched inhabitants, who dare to make this beautiful little boy feel small and at Howard and Maria, who haven't shown him even an ounce of love in all the years since they became his parents.

 

Peggy, who comes back the day after with bare lips and her hair in a headband and is wearing comfortable clothes and who teaches Tony to  _ fight. _

 

Edwin, who watches with careful eyes and a first aid kit as his protegee, his son in all but blood is taught the skills he wishes Tony wouldn't need but that he knows, deep in his soul that he will, and that there is only so much they can do to help prepare and protect him.

 

Ana, and the fresh, homemade cookies and smiles waiting for him whenever he comes into the kitchen after a training session, sweaty and out of breath. 

 

Ana, who tousles his hair and gives him a hug despite the way he smells of sweat and exhaustion.

 

This is how Tony grows up, surrounded by these people with whom he shares not blood, but everything else. They are his family in every sense except the biological. 

 

Of course happiness does not stay forever, especially not for Tony. Peggy’s dementia and Edwin’s first stage of cancer hit him hard, and Tony can’t help but feel as if the whole world is intent on ripping every piece of happiness away from him, because he's not even allowed to stay with Edwin and Peggy. 

 

Howard forces him to start his education at MIT, to become a genius engineer of his own, to one day take over the Stark family business. He’s fifteen and reckless, away from home and he doesn't know how much of his family will still be there when he returns again for the holidays. 

 

At MIT he’s careless and arrogant to anyone who tries to talk to him, breaking out that old familiar mask just so people don't look too closely at how he's breaking underneath it. He still loves the classes, of course, but he can’t help but feel as if nothing matters anymore.

 

He’s a meteor, hurtling toward a black hole, and the prospect of the oncoming disaster doesn't seem like a bad thing.

 

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 

 

And then he meets Rhodey.

 

Rhodey, who saw him in the gym one day, attacking a punching bag with rigid abandon, all whirlwind and chaos, so very much like aunt Peggy, and whose eyes can't seem to stop following him from then on.

 

Rhodey is the one who reaches out first, who knocks on Tony’s door with the offer of video games and math equations like one of the few friendships Tony’s has in his life.

 

And he takes it. 

It doesn't solve all his problems, like being denied visits to Edwin and Peggy, because they're not technically related and he doesn't have the school’s permission to leave anyway, but it gets easier. 

 

Rhodey helps him sneak out once or twice to go see them anyway, and these visits keep him afloat and working. 

He's not exactly living, but at least he's not self destructing like he figured he would be at this point, before he met Rhodey.

 

In a way, Rhodey is what saves him, what reminds him to go on and why he can’t just give up and stop fighting. Rhodey makes it all worth it. 

 

Rhodey is a year above him, but they somehow manage to get a dorm room together, and that is even better than just getting by, knowing that he’ll have someone to talk to in case he’s feeling shitty again. Now, Rhodey is there with him, can help him snap out of it and distract him from the pain he’s feeling.

 

He brings Rhodey home with him during the holidays and argues with his father about anything and everything, and when the papers show a picture of Tony with another boy at MIT it is Rhodey and Ana who comfort him after hearing nothing but “faggot” and “cocksucker” thrown at him by people who think love is something sinful if it doesn’t fit their narrow definition. 

 

It is a month later, when he and Rhodey are once again sitting in their shared dorm room, cuddled together watching a movie, that Rhodey tells him. 

Tells him of a boy he knew in his freshman year and how even though they didn't work out, he wants Tony to know that love is possible, is real and that there will always be people who love him for who he is. That he will find love.

 

Tony hugs him tightly, and that night sets a precedent of them having weekly movie nights, cuddled together under one of Ana’s self made blankets, sharing secrets and stories that they don't yet dare to speak to the rest of the world. 

 

They’re in the the papers all the time, every picture of them laughing and smiling together analysed for “shameful homosexual tendencies”, as the papers like to call it, and of course it weighs on them. They limit their body language and smile less when they’re outside.

 

But still, Tony doesn't stop creating, doesn't stop working despite it all. There's a fire burning inside of him, a yearning to create, to build and to rise higher and higher yet. They ask a good friend of Rhodey’s to play his girlfriend in public, because he cannot risk being denied an airforce position, not when he's so close already, and they continue on living, radiant and smiling despite everything that longs to bring them down.

 

And on the hard days, when there are new, closer estimates for Edwin’s remaining time or when Peggy is having a particularly bad day, they curl up together on their couch and try to find solace in each other. It doesn’t always work. 

 

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 

 

The first time they kiss, they’re sitting on said couch, discussing one of the many problems Tony is having with his newest project, a learning AI, when he realises that there's nowhere, and with no one he'd rather be. 

 

He smiles, and slowly leans forward, searching Rhodey’s eyes with his own and asking permission for what he's about to do. 

 

And then they’re kissing, and its sloppy and kind of a weird angle, but its perfect and it's all Tony ever wanted. They can hardly stop touching for the next few days, brimming with curiosity and excitement over this new development.

 

They still keep everything under wraps of course, not wanting to risk Rhodey’s air force career in any way. So Rhodey still has a fake girlfriend and they still don’t touch a lot outside of their dorm room, but it works.

 

They know that brighter times are coming, because they will make them brighter by force if they have to. For now, they’re content waiting for the rest of the world to catch up a bit. 

 

Of course they do tell Rhodey’s family, Edwin and Ana, and, once she’s having a good day, Peggy. 

 

Edwin smiles at them, a weak and fragile thing, but a smile nonetheless and softly nods his approval. Ana hugs them both tightly and sends them away with a box of cookies and a new blanket. Peggy grins, and somehow it seems as if she knew it would come to this from the moment Tony first introduced Rhodey to her, so satisfied is the glint in her eyes.

 

They don't always have it easy, but through all that is to come, through all the pain and fear and hurt, they know with absolute certainty, that they will not be alone.

 

And after so, so many years, after Edwin’s and Ana’s funeral, after Afghanistan, after Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, after Vanko, after everything, there is still a bond between them that is stronger than anything else. If anything, it’s grown even stronger since those MIT days.

 

And once the world is filled with superheroes and there are bigger problems to worry about than two men loving each other, they finally marry, and it is  _ glorious. _

 

The papers speculate, like they always do of course. About the length of their relationship, about the fact that the rings they exchange seem to glow somehow, in a certain blue light often associated with Iron Man, and about the three empty chairs at the reception table, right by Tony’s side.

 

He just smiles and thinks of the three people, his precious family, who deserved to be there with them at least in thought, and who always will be with him in his heart.

 

His very favourite people.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! If you want to talk to me or even just scream about marvel with me I am always happy to do so.  
> You can reach me on tumblr at [introvertedgirlsarentshy](http://introvertedgirlsarentshy.tumblr.com/)
> 
> And please comment and or leave kudos, it really means a lot to me (it also means I write more, if that's something you're interested in).


End file.
